Need some starting tips for Canning! UPDATED, new questions!

[moolie]

Thanks!

What canner do ya'll recommend? I'm looking at this one. Although for now I will be using my brothers Presto since I need to get started asap. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. My husband is heading out to get our years supply of salmon on Friday and I need to can and smoke what is left of last years before he arrives home.

Unfortunately I don't have anything to water bath can, except rhubarb. I have a small 6-8 maybe even 10qt water bath canner but since I bought it at a yard sale I don't have a rack or anything for it. Is there anything I can use as a rack? I might have a round cooling rack that might fit. Hopefully it doesn't have rubber feet!

ETA: My brother couldn't find the instructions for his canner. It doesn't have a gauge is there any instructions online for me to read?

You can find replacement parts for the Presto by calling them or checking your local hardware store. The manuals are available online from the Presto website--google is your friend for that one

 

[ORChick]

I am trying to learn how to can. I want to can our salmon as well as meals, along with veggies and fruit. etc. So from what I have read I need a pressure cooker. I'm looking at pressure cookers online, and I'm trying to find out what would be best for me. I want something that can can as many quarts as possible. I have a wood stove so size won't be a big issue, I don't think. My regular at home stove is a glass top.

Anyways I have a lots of questions!

I avoid aluminum cooking pans as much as possible, and since I will only be using the cooker for canning, will it matter that it's made from aluminum or should I look for a steel one?

Can I can rice in broth?

Do I need a water bath canner and a pressure cooker or just one?

What other smaller supplies do I need? I know I need the racks to keep jars off the bottoms, the clamps to pull the jars out of the water, and the funnels are really handy for preventing spills. Anything else?

Can someone reassure me how safe pressure canning is? Maybe give me a scenario where something could go wrong? I can't believe I am actually getting brave enough to do this possibly on my own. A friend said she'd teach me, but I don't have time right now to do it the way she wants.

You've got a lot of good advice already, so I won't add any ... except for the bolded sentence above - this kind of worries me. If she knows how to can, and you don't have time to learn her way, then what do you have time for? To go at it hit or miss, and hope that you don't poison your family? You specifically say that you want to can salmon. Fish and meats are the two things that I would never play around with; if you're going to do it then you should learn to do it right, and that takes a certain amount of time ... as do most things done properly. Please, it sounds like you are very new at this, please take the time to learn how to do it right. When you have it mastered then you can take the choice to cut a few corners if you feel comfortable doing so. Jams and jellies are one thing - the worst that might happen is some mold. Fish, improperly canned, could kill you.

 

[Our7Wonders]

I don't have much to add except for a possible suggestion.

I have a glass top stove too - it's the type that I'm not supposed to can on (I know some glass tops are able to be canned on, mine is not one of them). I borrowed a three burner propane stove and canned jam outside last year - it was great! I liked it so well that I'm buying one for this year's canning season. Even if I had a regular coil burner stove I would still want it - I loved doing the canning outside. Much less mess, MUCH less heat in the house. I've only done water bath canning, so I really don't know for sure how it would work but I would *think* that a pressure canner would work on the propane burner. The heat is easily regulated by the size of the burner's flame.

Something to think about anyway.

 

[JRmom]

I don't have much to add except for a possible suggestion.

I have a glass top stove too - it's the type that I'm not supposed to can on (I know some glass tops are able to be canned on, mine is not one of them). I borrowed a three burner propane stove and canned jam outside last year - it was great! I liked it so well that I'm buying one for this year's canning season. Even if I had a regular coil burner stove I would still want it - I loved doing the canning outside. Much less mess, MUCH less heat in the house. I've only done water bath canning, so I really don't know for sure how it would work but I would *think* that a pressure canner would work on the propane burner. The heat is easily regulated by the size of the burner's flame.

Something to think about anyway.

My canner's instructions (Presto) say DO NOT use on any outdoor LP gas burner or gas range over 12,000 BTU's.

 

[freemotion]

I think there is a tutorial on www.canningusa.com on canning tuna, so salmon should be the same. I started out with a pressure canner, and only waterbath canned hundreds of jars later. I'd suggest you start by canning some jars of plain beans. I can up a lot of black beans for use in recipes, with no added flavoring so I can use them in soups, black bean cake, refried beans, whatever I want. Very handy and very cheap, and you will learn how to work with your canner for the price of a pound of dry beans....what, a buck or so? Plus the lids.

Oh, and that borrowed canner.....I wouldn't use it without replacing all the rubber parts, unless they've been replaced within the last year.

 

[TanksHill]

I don't have much to add except for a possible suggestion.

I have a glass top stove too - it's the type that I'm not supposed to can on (I know some glass tops are able to be canned on, mine is not one of them). I borrowed a three burner propane stove and canned jam outside last year - it was great! I liked it so well that I'm buying one for this year's canning season. Even if I had a regular coil burner stove I would still want it - I loved doing the canning outside. Much less mess, MUCH less heat in the house. I've only done water bath canning, so I really don't know for sure how it would work but I would *think* that a pressure canner would work on the propane burner. The heat is easily regulated by the size of the burner's flame.

Something to think about anyway.

My canner's instructions (Presto) say DO NOT use on any outdoor LP gas burner or gas range over 12,000 BTU's.

I actually think the largest burner on my stove is 14,000btu and it's all I use.

I think being cautious would help.

g

 

[CrownofThorns]

Sooo.... I never canned salmon. The water was high so there was no salmon running. Hubby caught 6 (4 small) salmon in 3 days. I'm sure we'll head back later in the year but for now I don't have to deal with canning salmon. BUT.... Blueberries are in season and yesterday we picked 5 gallons. So I intend to can some syrup and I just wanted to run through everything with ya'll to make sure I have the basics down correctly. Also I bought a pressure canner and I have some questions about that.

So my understanding of basic protocol for making blueberry syrup is;

Make syrup, which includes lemon juice, blueberries and syrup. (is lemon juice a must?)

Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water. Boil for 10 minutes.

Put hot syrup into hot jars, put on lids and rings. Boil under at least 2 inches of water for 10 minutes. Pull out set on towel and let them sit overnight.

Questions:

Since I will be using pint jars, I can fit 2 layers of jars in the canner. Is that something I can do?

Due to my small kitchen and the fact that I'm not using a pressure canner I'm hoping to use my wood cook stove. Is that ok for water bath canning?

I also want to make some pie filling, do I have to use the pressure canner for that? Does anyone have any recipes? Do I need to use a thickener like cornstarch or arrowroot?

I have five gallons of blueberries to do today. What is the biggest batch size I can do that would be easy to handle, but help to get it done in a reasonable amount of time? The website I read said to do no more then 6.5 C of blueberries at a time, that is very little and it would take me ALL day!

Pressure Canner Questions:
First of all I would like to get ya'lls opinion on wether or not I paid too much for this canner. I bought it used from someone who replied to my ad. He said he had no idea what to ask for it, and he was giving me around 5 cases of jars with it. (I got 3 cases of pint from him yesterday, the rest were in his basement and he said he'd call when he unearth's them) It is a Sears (made by Presto) 21 qt pressure cooker-canner. It is missing the steam weight thingy mabobber. I knew it was probably around $120 canner so I offered him $40. Looks like he may have been happy with less. I had speculated in the vehicle before arriving that I could probably get $20 for it, but it was a lot bigger then I was thinking. I was thinking it could only hold 3-4 quart jars. So now everyone says I paid too much for it. Your thoughts? It still has the rack, although that is a bit rusty. It's not in the best of shape but not bad either. To get a new seal, weight thingy and the instruction booklet from online, including shipping I will be putting another $30 into it.

He says he used it last summer, so do I need to get the pressure gauge checked out or anything? I have read, and I think ya'll recommended that I replace the seal on any that has been stored for a while or bought used. But do I really have to? I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but the first thing I did is inspect the seal and there is no cracks holes or anything in it.

Anything else I should check before using it?

He said I can use any weight on it? True? Or do I have to buy one for that specific model?

I think that's all!
Thanks!

 

[Britesea]

If you got 3 cases of pint jars with it, and the possibility of more--- I think $40 is a good price.

Something my mother-in-law used to do when she was canning: if she got down to the last batch to go into the canner and it wasn't quite a full load, she would throw in a couple of jars with just water in it. She stored the sealed jars of water in the pantry along with everything else, as an emergency water source. The water might get a little 'stale' tasting, but it would still be potable.
Since this was in earthquake country, another thing we used to do was put a rubber band around each jar, to minimize the chance of jars breaking by knocking against each other.

I found a site online with instructions for canning blueberries that was for ANY amount (http://www.pickyourown.org/blueberries_canning.htm)